Join John from the Appalachian Channel for a busy April morning as he tackles a massive project in his raised bed gardens. With over 100 bags of soil and mulch to move, this is a deep dive into the physical work and the learning curves that come with first-year homesteading. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned gardener, you will find plenty of practical tips and honest reflections on what works and what does not when building a garden from scratch.
In this video, John walks through the process of filling 12-foot raised beds and discusses the specific soil math required to get the job done right. You will see a comparison between different lettuce beds, a look at how cold weather can stunt tomato and pepper growth, and the daily routine of moving seedlings in and out of the garage to protect them from fluctuating temperatures. From breaking up heavy soil clods to choosing the right mulch for walkways, this episode is packed with hands-on gardening action. John also shares his experiences with various seed-starting methods, the challenges of using unsterilized straw, and his future plans for growing gourds and watermelons on the property.
Chapters
0:00 Intro and Garden Overview
3:15 Comparing Romaine Lettuce Growth
7:45 Soil Math and Bed Filling Costs
11:20 Temperature Sensitivity in Peppers
15:10 Grass Management and Homestead History
20:30 Setting Up the Potting Station
24:45 Stunted vs Healthy Tomatoes
29:15 Seedling Hardening Off Routine
34:00 Wetting Cardboard and Soil Prep
38:30 Dumping the First Soil Bags
43:10 Breaking Up Soil Clods
48:00 Pest Control and Groundhogs
52:15 Angel and the Mail Lady
57:00 Using the Tater Fork
1:01:45 Adding Organic Miracle Gro
1:06:30 Fast Motion Bed Filling
1:11:15 Best Bag Cutting Techniques
1:16:00 Mulching the Walkways
1:21:00 Using the Hand Cart
1:25:30 Planting Flowers and Future Plans
1:28:00 Final Thoughts and Outro
If you enjoyed following along with today’s garden progress, please make sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell. Leave a comment below to let us know what you are planting in your garden this season or where you are watching from.
#gardening #raisedbeds #homesteading #appalachia #vegetablegarden
https://www.youtube.com/@UCnLjRtaEyXXoo-VSO_dbx5Q
John Ward
Johngward1472@gmail.com
24 Comments
John you did a magnificent job.
John as nice as the mulch looks in you're pathways, I personally wouldn't do it. I learned that over time and it doesn't take long, when it breaks down, and just becomes soil, you will have weeds and grass growing quicker than you think. I now just use the cloth, and its easily kept clean with a blower, like you've done. Just speaking from experience.
Your garden looks so neat and put together! I just put up one cattle panel arch and can’t wait to see what all grows all the way to the top and hangs down inside. I love your weed-free walkways and your stone edging, but I’m in Texas and we have had a deluge of rain… Kind of like a monsoon season here in the central part of the state. I went out in the rain and tried to level off some areas that looked flat until they started holding water. We have clay soil and it doesn’t really love to drain that well: if I had those pavers around the outside of my garden, it would look like a swimming pool the next morning! Hopefully you have much a better draining situation than here. I hope you’re wrong about those rotted logs because I just filled up two small raised beds with some pretty old logs, but hoping there are enough inches of soil on top for the roots not to be affected by the decomposition of wood. Can’t wait to see how your peppers and tomatoes do. I’ve got a lot of tomatoes planted, but our season is short here. It gets too hot for blooms to set (usually June) just when the Midwest and northern states are getting started good. But water them thoroughly and keep them under shade cloth and they’ll produce again in the fall. Happy gardening!
We have so many dandelions in our backyard. I think I’m gonna try that tomorrow. Go pick some leaves. Go pick some dandelion drinks and jelly too.🌱🌱🌱🌱
My husband and I are watching from Arkansas. Our favorite veggies that my husband plants are Tomatos, Cucumbers and Okra.
Tuscaloosa Alabama ROLL TIDE
If you could get some more of that wire and run it from one side all the way to the other you can have a enclosed green house
Looks very nice John so neat and tidy weeds are hard to control my husband uses epson salt around his tomatoes and 10-10-10 as a fertilizer when you plant out your bedding plants white roots mean healthy roots we also use biotin root starter mixed in with the soil we planted potatoes on Good Friday and they are growing fast . Your doing a great job hope you have a successful harvest
What you accidentally spilled on the outside of the bed, does that mean that it's "DIRT"?😁😉
Drink plenty of fluids John🙂👍.
Your bed with all the wood could be way to alkaline, you'll need to just amend it with quick sulphur this winter it helps to bring the ph down, my garden spot is close to a big oak tree and discovered last year to not plant my potatoes near it because the soil was way to alkaline and caused potato scab on some of my potatoes, it does not hurt the eating of them it just makes them not last as long so you got to get them peeled and blanched and either canned or do a pre-freezing of them and bag them for fried potatoes or pot pie, soup's and such. Rule of thumb with watering peppers is to give them a good watering like once a week because you can over water them, once in the ground an inch of water every 5-7 days. I dump the grass clippings from our bagger to the chickens they love it. You're doing good Mr. John, we learn thru trial and error for sure. God Bless and Happy Gardening… I just got my potatoes planted, and its a few weeks out before I can plant everything else, my onions are kind of sad I think its these drastic temp changes.
John you can plant the whole tomato slioce as it is and your plants will grow and the rest of the slice will compost into the soil. That is how I plant tomatoes for the last 5 years
Great job John. I live in GA and my tomatoes aren't out yet. I like to wait till the soil is at least in the 50's at night.
Just so you know ow depending what your growing soil can be to rich!! Like if you plant tomatoes there they have a good possibility of rotting off at the stem! . I plant 60 tomatoe plants a year. And do alot of juicing. Why so many. But I use sand for top soil. And I'm in Virginia.
Squash love wet soil like your doing. And cucumbers. But not tomatoes. They will rot.
Mulch makes rot!!
Hi John, Enjoyed your latest video yesterday where you finished filling the soil in your beds and mulched around them. Great job!
I'm from Cincinnati and on the news tonight they said tomato prices are up over 20% and rising because of a freeze in Florida and very wet season in Mexico. The stuffed peppers were great but not so fresh at Walmart. Tomatoes and peppers are both easy to grow. I'm bedridden or I would be growing along with you. It was so cute watching good girl Angel patiently waiting for her treat. Can't wait to see your abundant harvest. Good Growing!!
Mirical grow has an organic die free wood mulch that is safe for your food garden beds, you can get it at Lowes, i reuse the soil bags for putting weeds in while weeding. I am in KY, I love growing berries, grapes, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, lots of stuff . LOL
Leanne from Sydney Australia- John please wear a mask when handing the bag soil you can nasty lung infections from them. Love your work
Been a gardener for over 10 years and just a tidbit to share. Start filling the beds with branches smaller trunks leaves etc more than 1/2 of the bed before adding the actual soil which I always mix in with compost
That’s beautiful lettuce!!
I can’t wait to see it all finished! It’s gonna look so good!
Looks great. Did a hell of a job. Nebraska
The difference in the two lettuce beds could be that it's easier for the soil to warm up without the straw on it. You only really need the mulch once the weather gets hotter to stop the beds drying out.